I don't want to be name droppy famous person guy, but this thread has very low traffic so I feel like I can post this here just because I think it's cool.
Kid#3 wanted to ride today, it's Thanksgiving break, and when we got to the track the only other people there were a father and son lapping on a pair of Ohvale mini GP bikes. It was Colin Edwards and his son. We did the dad chat about kids on bikes, he fist bumped Kid#3 when she came off track and told her she was doing awesome. It was an unexpected highlight of my day so far.
Thats pretty neat! The Texas Tornado!
Nothing like a compliment and a fistbump from a World Superbike Champion and Moto GP racer to boost your confidence... that is freaking AWESOME!!!
The whole thing was pretty awesome. For those who don't follow motorcycle racing, MotoGP is the pinnacle of motorcycle road racing, this is the equivalent of having a Formula 1 driver just hanging out lapping with his kid and you show up with your kid and they do laps and you hang out and chat.
Forgot to talk about Ohvale MiniGP bikes. They're very much the hot thing on the world stage for kids and adults to get track time on a bike that behaves like a big bike instead of a dirt bike with sticky tires. They started bringing them to the US not quite two years ago and they've exploded in popularity. Eleven Motorsports is an arrive and ride company and they brought a trailer of bikes to the track last weekend for people to try. $35 for a half hour session on one of the automatic transmission bikes.
Kid#3 rode a session and came away with mixed feelings. On the one hand, she loved it. The bike fits her and she liked the general handling. On the other hand she says she's not ready for the physicality of racing one yet. You ride them very much with your upper body and the faster you go the better they ride. She wants to spend at least half of this next season riding with a clutch on race tires and then get back on an Ohvale.
759NRNG
UltraDork
11/27/19 8:55 a.m.
Colin Edwards...........NO.......way cool. Was a favorite and always rooted for him. Is this the track off of 242 @ 59?
759NRNG
UltraDork
11/27/19 8:57 a.m.
mazdeuce - Seth said:
Surgery! So happy to get it done so the bones stop moving. Little more complicated than they thought. When they cut me open they found 4-5 little pieces which were too small to attach with screws. The doctor said they ground them up with some bone graft material and made spackle for the cracks. That's metal.
I don't know,but i see a slight resemblance between yu and Colin E.........
759NRNG said:
Colin Edwards...........NO.......way cool. Was a favorite and always rooted for him. Is this the track off of 242 @ 59?
I'll answer for Seth (because I've been there a couple of times) that yes, it's SpeedSportz park at 242 and 59. GREAT facility and awesome owner. Alan is a multi-national kart winner, himself.
-Rob
Speedsportz really is a great track and Alan is super nice. He paused talking to Colin to ask me about my shoulder. The whole track is fantastically supportive of the motorcycles always making sure we have our rotations on open member days and working with the bike organizations so that they can rent the track for racing and club days.
As far as being a good dad, thanks and man is it hard to balance all of this with having a bunch of kids. Three of the four kids at home and kid#3 is the only one that wants to ride with me. In some ways that makes things easier (and cheaper) but I know that spending time or money in one place means that it's not available in another. The rest of the kids have been understanding. I couple of my car friends have asked where I went recently. When it's between lapping with my kid, or getting her bike ready, or whatever, I'm having so much fun hanging out with her that I'm not even missing car stuff.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
I can babysit the miata and rallycross it
mazdeuce - Seth said:
Speedsportz really is a great track and Alan is super nice. He paused talking to Colin to ask me about my shoulder. The whole track is fantastically supportive of the motorcycles always making sure we have our rotations on open member days and working with the bike organizations so that they can rent the track for racing and club days.
Sounds like a business owner who gets it and his facility certainly leads me believe it. I love their arrive and drive circuit. Couple buddies and I went there on a week night 2 years ago before I moved to Dallas and omg it's a ball to jump the curbs there.
Patrick said:
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
I can babysit the miata and rallycross it
We may chat about that in the spring depending on what goes on college wise with kids #1 and #2. The thought crossed my mind about a week ago.
759NRNG
UltraDork
11/27/19 6:25 p.m.
What is #2kid's path through college.....engineering .......biomedicine.......computersci.......the arts????
Seth, it’s awesome to have been away for a bit and pop back in to find small bike shenanigans! I’ve long been a motorcycle rider and a huge fan of small displacement middleweights- the 450 and 500 cc street bikes are so much more fun to ride because they can be ridden to their potential much more easily than the 600-1000 cc superbikes.
Good news! My surgeon is happy with my recovery. He says he won't pull the plate until after the new year but I'm free of all restrictions including motorcycle ones. Yay! 44 days off the bike. Went and did 30 laps as a nice easy pace. I love living by the track.
I also asked him why I had certain pain and he said that's to be expected when they cut your pec and delt away from the shoulder. "When you what now?" Nobody told me they had to pull the muscles off my shoulder to get access to the bone and get it lined up and screwed together. A whole lot about my recovery makes sense now. I should ask more questions before they give me drugs next time.
Dont overdo it. Even though hes cleared you.
I was cleared after ankle reconstruction, so i built the elky. I still, and always will, walk with a limp because i rushed it.
We ain't 16 anymore.....
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
I'm riding very very gently. The point of today was actually to see what sort of stress riding would put on my shoulder and see what rehab I might need to get it back in shape. Turns out I'm healing well. I'm riding laps that are 6-8 seconds slower than a quick lap on this bike and are about four seconds slower than I was riding with my collarbone flopping around in pieces. The leathers do push the skin down against the plate which is annoying. First time I'm felt that. I'm being careful and won't run laps faster than this until afther they remove the plate. I won't run race pace without an air vest/suit.
In reply to slowbird :
Gentle riding. It's good for my soul. Makes me happy. 
Last day of riding for the year for us was the end of last week. We figured we could squeak a few minutes in between the end of school and dark. It was 63 degrees when we got there but the sun setting made it cold quick. It was 46 when we left. We were cold.
I picked up three more bikes recently (more about that later) and one of them was an XR70 which needs a few things. It will get fixed and sold but it has a very fancy rear shock that went into kid#3's bike. She came back in describing exactly what a blown rear shock feels like and sure enough, no damping at all. It should be rebuildable, so that's another project for the new year.
One bit of advice: keep your plate. I stopped noticing mine after a year, after initially not being able to wear even a normal seatbelt on that side. I was intent on getting it out, then came to like it.
It went from "oh cool this doesn't cause agony anymore" to "hey I think this is getting better" to wearing a HANS for a 2-hour stint and carrying a hiking pack with no issues. You'll get used to it, and it keeps your bone stronger and avoids a second surgery. Apparently you have a decent chance of re-breaking during its removal and the recovery from that, too.
Bonus: I asked my dr. what would happen if I broke that bone again with the plate installed. He said I'd die, then laughed and clarified that if I managed to break it now then whatever I'd hit that hard would have already killed me.
In reply to Tom Suddard :
Interesting, thanks for that advice. My surgeon suggested that I have it removed primarily because he thinks any additional breaks will be at the ends of the plate and those breaks will be extremely complicated to fix. You're the second person who said keeping it was fine, the other being Colin Edward's who told me he's got them in both sides and it's been fine for over 15 years. My checkup is in mid January. I'll be sure to talk about it.
